Understanding and Resolving Social Work Ethics Dilemmas

This assignment delves into the intricacies of social work ethics, providing guidance on handling relationships, complications, and responsibilities that arise after marriage. It also touches upon the importance of respecting individuality, confidentiality, and privacy in social care activities, particularly for people with disabilities. The discussion paper on dementia as a disability further emphasizes the need for ethical considerations in policy and practice.

FOSTERING/IMPLEMENTING
DIGNITY AND RESPECT

Table of Contents
QUESTION 1 Principles of ethics...................................................................................................3
QUESTION-2..................................................................................................................................5
QUESTION 3 Reflection.................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

QUESTION 1 Principles of ethics
Ethics is the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles that govern a persons'
behaviour or conduction of an activity. Principles of ethics are generalized framework based on
philosophical stance which indirectly or directly leads to ethical standards. These principles
should be followed by every individual or groups whether doesn't matter whether that individual
is suffering from any disability or is perfectly normal. Here a couple with learning disability has
to suffer various violations in their ethical rights from local authorities (Benn, 2017). There are
few basic principles of ethics has been violated which have been affected in this case study about
Sarah Thompson Drayton and Daniel Drayton which are dignity, freedom, respect,
responsibilities and rights.
Dignity is the basic right of a person to be respected and valued for their own. It has its
significance in law, ethics, morality. It is one of the basic right that every human being has.
There are various ways that dignity of person can be violated. but in this case study it has been
violated in terms of dehumanization ( It is a process or a behaviour that undermines someone's
individuality ) . In simple words it can be explained as a treatment towards a person as it they
lack in mental health In this case study similar thing has happened i.e. they had to go through a
process of social exclusion where they were restricted to marry. Couple were alligated that they
were sufficiently incapable of getting married and developing relations. Their fundamental right
of human dignity was questioned and stopped them to marry for nearly a year.
During this whole process one more human dignity was violated i.e. humiliation ( act that
diminish or humiliate the self worth of a human or a group ) where the groom was threatened to
be charged for rape with Sarah (Barrow, 2015). Local social care service on the name of their
duties were excluding them socially and humiliating them. Sarah had to go through a mental
capacity assessment to check whether she was capable enough to understand everything and get
married. This test was carried out against her and her mother's wish which was a question not
only on her dignity but also on her freedom to refuse to give the assessment.
Ethics has created some basic principles out of which one suggests the morality of
personal Freedom. One of the most common principle of autonomy which instructs everyone to
respect others personal freedom. In this case study Principle of equal freedom has been violated
which says that a person should not be forced to certain extent that their right of freedom is

deprived from them. It is the right of every individual that they have freedom to do anything
Every individual has freedom of privacy, speech, expression, etc.
Similarly, every human being have the freedom of getting married to anyone without
judging them on the basis of incapabilities or disabilities of a person. In this case study both
Sarah Thompson Drayton and Daniel Drayton were restricted not to marry as both were having
some learning disability. Local adult social care service tried to stop them from marring and
violated their basic ethical principle of freedom. Legally both of were capable enough to marry
each other. According to a mental capacity act, Section 1 a person should be assumed as
mentally capable to have capacity until and unless it is not proven (Herlihy and Painter, 2018).
Those individuals' should not be treated as person's that lack capacity in making decision.
Principle of respect is one of the most common ethical principle that is generally violated
in the society in various ways. Respect for an individual incorporates of two things, first is that
any individual should be treated as an autonomous agent and second if a persons' autonomy is
diminished then they are entitled to protection. Thus, it can be said that principle of respect is
divided into two moral requirements i.e. knowledge and protect diminished autonomy
requirement. In this case requirement to diminished autonomous persons' is shown which says
that respect to incapacitated and immature persons should be protected as they need extensive
support and protection which depends upon the likelihood of them getting benefited form that
situation.
In this case study instead of protecting the couple from the society local adult social care
services themselves weren't respecting them and were forcing their parents as well This principle
is directly linked with principle of human dignity as if the person with incapabilities will not be
respected both in terms of their freedom or decision making capabilities as well as their dignity
was also being questioned (Banks, 2016). Sarah and her husband decision of getting married was
questioned and disrespected by the local services.
Responsibilities is the most basic ethical concept that states the fact that any social
groups, individuals have some moral responsibilities, duties and obligations towards others.
Concept of ethical responsibilities have many sub principles such as: first is to remain fair with
others and should treat them equally. Second is that services should be provided to others with
diligence. This principle says that everyone has some social as well as professional
responsibilities towards others. Any group like adult social service in this case study has some

moral responsibilities and ethics that they should follow while working and respect an
individuals' privacy.
Such social groups should develop some moral, and professional responsibilities towards
others and try not to violate these principles. In this case study same thing happened. Adult social
care services ethical responsibility was to provide support to learning disabilities persons as well
as parents. But instead of supporting and protecting both Sarah Thompson Drayton and her
husband Daniel Drayton their decisions those authorities restricted them from getting married
and violated their ethical and professional responsibilities (Congress, 2017). The couple needed
to fight for their right to marry which was similar to fight a battle for them with their disabilities.
There is a department of health funded project that provides help to local authorities to support
such kind of people as well as parents but still those local services forced, threatened and
forcefully took health assessment to check whether they should marry or not. This one of an
example where they violated there principles of ethical responsibilities.
There are many rights based ethics that every individuals have and practise. These rights
are both convectional as well as natural. Natural rights are based on the morals while
convectional rights are created for humans and that reflect society's values. In this case study
various rights of Sarah Thompson Drayton and Daniel Drayton were violated by the local
authorities in various ways like, Couple right to liberty was violated as their were restricted to
marry each other and as a result their right to pursue happiness was also violated. Overall those
local services also violated their right to be treated with dignity and respect and to be treated
equivalent to others.
These are the various ethical principles that had been violated and affected both Sarah
Thompson Drayton and her husband Daniel Drayton (Beckett, Maynard and Jordan, 2017). Both
the couple as well as their parents had to face the local authority for almost a year. The local
social care service authority tried to stop them, forced them not to marry each other and during
this whole process they violated various ethical principles concerned to the couple as well as
themselves. In short here ethical principles like dignity, respect, freedom, rights and
responsibilities had been violated and affected in the case study.
QUESTION 2
The associated case study has shed light on the implications of ethical principles such as
dignity, freedom, respect in terms of conducting the responsibilities and implementing rights in

profound manner to bring attention towards the conditions of people with severe learning
disabilities. These principles have been considered in overcoming the challenges and crisis
associated in context to people suffering from severe learning disabilities. Such people might
also be vulnerable due to any other physical disabilities or conditions in medical terms. In this
regard, effective communication and interpersonal skills would be the useful tools to help in the
overall assessment of this situation.
Communication is the determinant to analyse and assess the situations, people emotions
and attached queries. It is of mainly two categories such as verbal and written communication.
Both categories have equal weight-age and while dealing with such cases, it is necessary to
design a strategic communication channels to convey the messages properly with efficient
delivery to all the surrounding people as well (Hammar and et.al, 2017). As per the case study,
the local adult social care services have shown ineffective competencies towards the overall
proposal of the wedding between Sarah and Daniel. Their reluctance towards this proposal and
constant pressures on preventing them vigorously from getting married led towards their lack of
education on dealing with such critical situation.
With respect to Mental Capacity Act- Section 1, it has been clearly demonstrated that the
five statutory principles has been designed to give protection to people with disabilities while
making any decisions (Gove and et.al, 2017). It has also given insights in relation to helping
these people in making decisions by making them participate in applying any practicable steps.
The authorities who were working with the local adult social care services were incompetent and
lacked the analytical reasoning while dealing with this particular case. They were not dignified
and were highly disrespectful while claiming that Daniel might take advantage of Sarah who has
problems and have incapacities that are not in aligned with a sense of judgement.
Herein it was indicated that they did not give the respect and dignity and pushed the
ethical code of conduct in demeaning manner. If they had communicated with Sarah and Daniel
and conducted the tests to explore the various aspects whether they are compatible and
sufficiently capable in having a fulfilling lives or not. Moreover, they ignored the affected
couple's emotions and totally disregard their mutual love for each other. Despite their families
support, these authorities forcefully pushed them apart and pestered them for almost a year in not
getting married. Such forceful behaviour and ill-mannered attitude directly led towards the lack

of command on the skills that are specified while overcoming the associated challenges in these
cases.
This shows that there was a huge communication gap that led bitterness in between them.
Although Sarah and her family were hopeful and when she decided to get married and notified
the local team about the same. Later, she received an assessment to have an overview whether
she was safe in living her life like a normal woman with sexual needs without getting exploited,
offended or abused. However, this also pointed the lack of understanding in communicating their
motive behind conducting this test. After this test results, she was declared fail but with a sound
ability to continue her life as a normal woman who is able to continue living her life after
marriage.
Along with this, interpersonal skills also play an imperative role in demonstrating the
need to understand its connectivity with respect to applying the ethical principles. Interpersonal
skills are those skills which are supportive in conducting effective communication at both
individual and combined levels. These are important for proper adaptation and application of
emotional intelligence that aid in characterization of various components to help the needy
people and fulfil the overall expectations (Hepworth and et.al, 2016). One must know that people
with any disability are in need of more support and cooperation in order to live their lives like a
normal human. With reference to the given case, it was grappling that this couple was judged in
such adverse manner. Their rights were violated and the local community services people were
adamant and made discriminatory perspectives regarding this couple's knowledge and
commitment.
Here, there is an understanding in using the interpersonal skills that come in handy which
they lacked in dealing with this couple's emotions. The major classification of interpersonal
skills includes oral, written, non-verbal and interpersonal. Additionally, this is mainly connected
with empathy, honesty, truthfulness and safety as these skills are the catalysts to bridge the gaps
between the decision making and responsible behaviour (Moss, 2017). Furthermore, it has
highlighted the lack of compassion, empathy and alertness while dealing with such critical
situations. There was a lack of interpersonal communication and ethical understanding among
the authorities of these services. Thus, it has led to such crisis and brought the attention towards
the exploitation of human rights. The lack of empathy towards the couple and their families led
to need of education and imparting legal policies to the authorities to overcome the obstacles that

hinder their personal lives in a negative manner. It also included a list of guidelines that should
be followed while making any suggestions in bringing any changes to the affected people,
although these professionals lack this approach and affect the entire working practices in an
ineffective way.
When the authorities disregarded Sarah's decision in getting married with Daniel, they
overlooked the fact that it ultimately their consensus which would affect the decision of wedding
or not. However, this fight for right to marry was based on the ambiguity that was created due to
the inefficiency of the authorities in gaining insights related to their humanly emotions. The
motive to formulate groups for helping the parents with any disabilities is to minimise the
additional burden and has been initiated to trigger a collaborative bonds for giving a safe and
healthy environment to people who are suffering from any learning disabilities.
In addition to the above factors, there is a great need of understanding the moral values
and principles that are required to tackle such critical scenarios by ensuring the usage of ethical
principles. People must be vigilant in regard to their rights, principles and legal obligations so
that they would not be able to suffer and has clear outline in leading their lifestyles. Moreover, it
also described the interpersonal responsibility of the entire community and the involved people
towards evaluating their contribution in the complete relevancy of using such ethical approaches
(Shakespeare, Zeilig and Mittler, 2017). It also involves about such individuals who must be
treated with dignity and respect and has freedom to take their decisions and fulfil the
responsibilities given to them in order to live their lives like a normal being.
Along with this, it has been aforementioned that communication and interpersonal skills
are important attributes that would be useful in making proper decisions and helping people with
severe learning disabilities. Authorities working in regulatory bodies must have the knowledge,
reasoning and analytics to deal with such severe cases and must be empathetic to understand
their situations by keeping themselves in their shoes. In regard to this, positive communication
has also assisted in making these disabled people comfortable while interacting with the
authoritative figures working to bring changes under a legal framework (Rogers, 2016)
Therefore, it is useful in implementing the ethical principles by undergoing the employees
several training programs and orientation sessions to become more approachable and responsible
while dealing with such situation.

QUESTION 3 Reflection
I have examined that the mind set of our society is set i.e. most of the organizations see
differently able people or individuals with learning disability as incapable of taking major
decisions of their lives. These local authorities try to control these peoples lives in various
aspects and sometimes even families of these individuals do not support them. I think these
people are easily judged based on their weakness and are treated differently. In this case study
also local adult social care service judged both Sarah Thompson Drayton and Daniel Drayton as
they had some learning disability and tried to stop them to marry each other. I have analysed that
we should never judge anyone on the basis of their weakness or their disability. Even person
with disability have their rights, freedom, dignity and has the right to live their lives the way they
want to. I understand that these people should be protected and provided support but on the name
of protection their rights should not be taken away. One should always remember and follow
their ethical principles and should apply them in their lives. This case study has impacted my
practise in many ways. Now I try to provide help to such people with some kind of difficulty and
if they are facing any kind of ethical issue then I try to support them and resolve their issue.
I have learned many things from this case study such as we should resect dignity,
autonomy, diversity, freedom and equality of all the individuals suffering from some disabilities.
Local authorities should try to provide guidance to these people instead of trying to control their
lives. In this case study these social care services should have understood their needs and instead
of trying to stop them they should have provided guidance to the couple of handling
relationships, the complications that can occur after marriage, their responsibilities that they will
be needing to fulfil towards each other, their families as well as towards society. In fact they
should have also provided them with some financial support to start their new life. These local
societies should respect the individuality, confidentiality and privacy of not only the couple but
also of their families (Ryan, 2014). Personally we should step into their shoe and understand
their situation i.e. what they must be going through, what would be their thought process, their
willingness etc. One can only understand the problem faced by such people only when they step
into their shoe. I have also started voluntarily participation in any kind of social care activity to
help differently abled people. I try to understand their needs and try to fulfil it till the extent I can
help them. I have also started to organize some campaign to educate people about the same thing
so that they can change their mind-set and understand the problems these disabled people face.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Banks, S., 2016. Everyday ethics in professional life: social work as ethics work. Ethics and
social welfare. 10(1). pp.35-52.
Barrow, R., 2015. Injustice, inequality and ethics: A philosophical introduction to moral
problems. Routledge.
Beckett, C., Maynard, A. and Jordan, P., 2017. Values and ethics in social work. Sage.
Benn, S.I., 2017. Privacy, freedom, and respect for persons. In Privacy and Personality (pp. 1-
26). Routledge.
Congress, E.P., 2017. What social workers should know about ethics: Understanding and
resolving practice dilemmas. Social Work Ethics, p.1909.
Gove, D.M., and et.al., 2017. Dementia as a disability: Implications for ethics, policy and
practice. A Discussion Paper.
Hammar, L.M., and et.al., 2017. The care of and communication with older people from the
perspective of student nurses. A mixed method study. Nurse education today. 52. pp.1-
6.
Hepworth, D.H., and et.al., 2016. Empowerment series: Direct social work practice: Theory and
skills. Nelson Education.
Herlihy, B.J. and Painter, E., 2018. Multicultural Ethical Issues Counseling. Multicultural Issues
in Counseling: New Approaches to Diversity, p.255.
Moss, B., 2017. Communication skills in health and social care. Sage.
Rogers, C., 2016. Intellectual disability and being human: a care ethics model. Routledge.
Shakespeare, T., Zeilig, H. and Mittler, P., 2017. Rights in mind: Thinking differently about
dementia and disability. Dementia, p.1471301217701506.
Online
Ryan, F., 2014. Couples with learning disabilities face unfair wedding bar. [Online]. Available
through: < https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/17/couples-learning-
disabilities-deniedmarriage-sexual-relations >